The Chronicle August, 2005 issue. Published on August 10, 2005 Vol.2005. Issue 0003
Dear Reader:
Reverberations team invites articles from students/alumni/faculty/administration for the next (September 2005) issue. Please note the following:
a) The articles should be of general interest, on any acceptable subject, such as short stories, about college/hostel life, engineering education, events/news at IT, puzzles, cartoons, critical review, etc.
b) A cover story titled "Need for revising the curriculum" is being planned (about 6-8 pages).
c) If enough articles are not received, then we shall NOT limit to one article per person and one page per article.
d) Please send your article (or any questions/comments) to: reverberations@itbhu.org
e) If you have any topic or idea in mind, but want to discuss before hand, then you are welcome to contact me at my personal ID yogesh@optonline.net
Please send your articles latest by 17th August.
With regards,
Reverberations team
CXO Conclave, New Delhi.
The Delhi chapter of the ITBHU.org (AIBA), is organising a CXO conclave in the month of September. The motive behind this meet is to provide a common forum to the mover and shakers, having ties with ITBHU, to discuss various issues related to IT BHU. The Director of IT and the coordinators of the Industry/Insititute Liasioning Cell would be invited to this conclave.
The details are as follows.
| Date | 23rd. September 2005 |
| Venue | Hotel Intercontinental - Grand at CP - Delhi |
| Timings | 6:30 P.M. onwards |
| Audience
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| Agenda |
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Hostel room or not, toilets or not, single rooms or double, but finally we have got internet in our hostels.
The students of our institute have finally got internet facility in their hostels, which is quite a relief for them and promises to be a big step towards improvement of facilities provided to students.
The network is divided into clusters of hostels with inter cluster links of data transfer speed 10 Gbps, and the switches in the hostels have are have a data transfer speed of 100 Mbps. It is because of the great effort put in by the BHU Authorities that this facility has been made available to the students. They have provided switches in the warden’s room and from there on students have setup their own LANs to take the net facility up to their rooms. The icing on the cake has been promised by the alumni who are going to wire all the hostels and provide the network in each of the rooms and also provide wireless access to all the points in the hostel premises.
All the hostels now have access to the internet. The download speed ranges from 3 kbps to 250 kbps depending on traffic with the average speed being 100 kbps.
Currently the computer center people are blocking the most accessed sites and are monitoring the downloads and the sites from which downloading is being done.
There has been an intranet forum posted at http://10.8.51.102/forum for all the internal news dispersion. The forum has been aptly named “Fattebaazon Ka Adda”.
Students have also started sharing material on DC++ (a file sharing open source software). Till 4/08/2005 was 1028 GB of shared space had been created in the hostels. People are actually using the forum as well as DC++ for internal chats.
There are plans to be using the internet for inter-branch and inter-year gaming tournaments like AOE, Unreal etc.
The professors have also started to play their role in the flow of things. Professors in CSE and Dr. K.K.Shukla, HOD, CSE, have started putting out their handouts in electronic forms in the intranet server in the department. Very soon students will be able to get many facilities with the progress in intranet project of ITBHU.
The IT workshops under the Department of Mechanical Engineering received a long overdue facelift with the introduction of some of the very latest infrastructure.
Though, always considered one of the best in the country, the workshop had passed through a period of neglect which meant that students were not being introduced to the latest machinery. This up gradation is surely just a small step in the right direction.
FEATURES
1) Instruction and Demonstration (I&D) Laboratory with LCD projector and conference facilities.
2) Lectures on workshop technology by some of the top professors, both Indian and overseas, in electronic form, which would be displayed in the ID lab to enable students to learn about the nuances of the workshop.
3) Fully air-conditioned CNC (Computerised and Numerically Controlled) workshop with two CNC machines (a lathe and a milling machine) at an estimated cost of Rs 22 lac each.
4) Generator sets purchased to enable 8 to 5 functioning of workshops even during times of power shortage.
5) Net investment of Rs 55 lacs involved in this modernisation drive.
BUT……
1) Lack of adequate funds hinders maintenance of machines and further upgradations.
2) Majority of furnaces and other machines have become obsolete.
3) Shortage of skilled staff impedes proper training of students as well as handling of some of the more sensitive instruments.
CHRONICLE hopes that authorities take action as deemed necessary.
Watch this space for more workshop related articles.
Table 1: JEE-2005 Ranks by Department
| Sr # | Department | Course | Range | Median Rank | # of students | Topper |
| 1 | Computer Science and Engineering | 4-yr | 1139-2401 | 1959 | 33 | Yogesh Singh Rawat |
| 2 | Electronics Engineering | 4-yr | 1307-2571 | 2338 | 43 | Gaurav Dutt Sharma |
| 3 | Computer Science and Engineering | 5-yr dual | 1822-2693 | 2595 | 9 | Sudish Kumar Sah |
| 4 | Electrical Engineering | 4-yr | 2560-2877 | 2774 | 41 | Amit Yadav |
| 5 | Mechanical Engineering | 4-yr | 2347-3058 | 2978 | 52 | Arun |
| 6 | Applied Mathematics | 5-yr dual | 2874-3196 | 3105 | 10 | Deepak Kumar Singh |
| 7 | Mechanical Engineering | 5-yr dual | 3068-3141 | 3105 | 10 | Rama Krishna K |
| 8 | Chemical Engineering | 4-yr | 2953-3318 | 3210 | 60 | Apoorva Krishna Srivastava |
| 9 | Applied Physics | 5-yr dual | 2510-3513 | 3444 | 10 | Amit Kumar Verma |
| 10 | Metallurgical Engineering | 4-yr | 3292-3659 | 3465 | 40 | Dhruv Mittal |
| 11 | Civil Engineering | 4-yr | 3165-3798 | 3612 | 45 | Aditya Kanodia |
| 12 | Metallurgical Engineering | 5-yr dual | 3616-3883 | 3812 | 10 | Agarwal |
| 13 | Civil Engineering | 5-yr dual | 3385-3868 | 3823 | 10 | Navin Kumar |
| 14 | Materian Science | 5-yr dual | 3653-4006 | 3869 | 10 | Ravi Kumar Chauhan |
| 15 | Ceramics Engineering | 4-yr | 3416-4018 | 3894 | 35 | Asav Solanki |
| 16 | Applied Chemistry | 5-yr dual | 3682-4008 | 3936 | 10 | Manish Chaubey |
| 17 | Ceramics Engineering | 5-yr dual | 4028-4136 | 4068 | 10 | Ms. Kamya Deepak Kapadia |
| 18 | Mining Engineering | 4 yr | 3787-4384 | 4227 | 50 | Shitansu Shukla |
| 19 | Pharmaceutics | 4-yr | 4421-4617 | 4544 | 11 | Siddharth Parimal |
| Total = | 499 |
Please Note : 50% of students in a group are above the median rank and 50% below the median rank. It is true representative of the preference for a branch/department by students.
Table 2: JEE-2005 top three rank holders among IT-BHU students
| Merit | Department | Course | Name | Rank |
| #1 | Computer Science and Engineering | 4-yr | Yogesh Singh Rawat | 1139 |
| #2 | Electronics Engineering | 4-yr | Gaurav Dutt Sharma | 1307 |
| #3 | Computer Science and Engineering | 4-yr | Rishi Baranwal | 1348 |
The first yearites have come to town and that can only mean dress codes, proctorial staff, seniors looking out for the new sizzlers and so on .This time around though, besides all the usual stuff, what is being watched with equal intrigue is how the introduction of various new streams and changes in syllabi will work out.
Dual degree courses have been introduced in Ceramics, Civil, Computer Science, Metallurgy, Mechanical and Material Science. Besides this five year integrated M-Tech courses in engineering physics, mathematics and scientific computing as well as industrial chemistry have commenced in line with the IIT model.
This has resulted in a staggering number of seats (499 students joined this year), resulting in more sizzlers to look out for as well as pushing the 2nd yearites into double rooms.
The first year syllabus has also undergone quite a drastic change with Technical Writing and the much dreaded Mechanics Lab making way for Professional Communication, Computer Lab and Environmental Science. Engineering & Machine drawing have been compressed into a single course lasting the duration of a semester.
What the end result will be with all these changes is a guess that chronicle does not wish to hazard into right now.
Chronicle managed to catch up with a few first-yearites (legitimately and legally) and asked them about their first impressions.
There was virtual unanimity regarding the splendor of the campus with a lot of them even daring to wander about to take in the sights and sounds (they even wanted the institute to arrange for transportation to take them around the campus).
Internet seems to have been the answer to the usually received complaints about facilities and infrastructure, as most of them said that what was on offer was pretty satisfactory.
Barring a minor complaint or two about the faculty in some departments most of them were at ease in the university and were impressed with the cooperative faculty, food provided in the mess and the efficiency of the anti-ragging squad.(seniors-heard that?)
The only problem or shortcoming that they seemed to be able to think about was the frequent power cuts, not surprising for this time of the season.
Anyway chronicle wishes that their life in the university passes off without any cuts, and takes this opportunity to welcome all first yearites to the institute.
| Name | Yogesh Singh Rawat |
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| AIR | 1139 | |
| Brach | Computer Science | |
| Home Town | Almora, Uttaranchal | |
| Hobbies | Reading Magazines, Playing Table Tennis (For all TT buffs we are talking about a national level player) | |
| So Why IT BHU ? | It was computer science all the time for me and when you put IT BHU in the picture the combination becomes irresistible. | |
Ladies and Gentlemen .. Noise please !! The college is in session ..
I.T. was bubbling again after 2 months of dormancy. The students were back to college after a long vacation, excited; but unfortunately found themselves amidst a ‘little’ bit of a chaos.
There were last minute changes in the hostel allotment, causing confusion and restlessness amongst those who had arrived early. The worst affected were the second year students, who were really keen to get some of their privacy back in the single seated rooms they were supposed to get. What they got though (and, much to their disappointment) were double seated rooms, reminiscent of their first year in the college. Accommodating two people in rooms meant for a single inmate was as tough, as tough could be.
The other problem, and a big one for that, was the state of toilets in the hostels. Construction was still going on and all the toilets could not be used, as a result of which students either had to get up before dawn or wait in long queues. Similarly, the messes were being renewed and were thus non-functional, hence, students had to go out for eating, an option not monetarily viable. The situation remained unchanged for around ten more days and then life was back to normal. The renovation of the hostels (although it’s restricted to the toilets and the messes only) is very much welcome but the question that needs to be answered is - Why couldn’t it be finished before the start of the new session? We now hope that the hostel staff is able to maintain these new look toilets and messes. The ones who were (yet again) spared of this entire trauma (and no prizes for guessing this one) were the girls.
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If your first semester grade points 8.39 and position in institute 14, what are the odds in favour of your getting a branch change? Practically none, but not so for Saurabh Singh. Saurabh, who enrolled himself as a civil engineering student ended up topping the institute with a YGPA of 8.82 which enabled him to secure a branch change to the electronics engineering department.
Saurabh kept up the trend of Lucknowites securing top positions in the examinations. He secured an astounding 9.26 in the second semester, something which has not been achieved in recent years. On being asked about this feat, he said that he was confident of doing well inspite of his first semester score, as his position in the parallel semester was 2nd. His attributed his success to a 3-point agenda – attending all classes, systematic and regular studies and keeping away from extracurricular activities. |
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He said that seniors had played an important role in his branch change and that he had found their suggestions really helpful in achieving the feat especially in subjects like thermodynamics, which even he admits is the toughest of all the first year subjects. He now looks forward to keeping up the good work in his new branch and moving into some extra-curricular activities as well. As for future plans, it’s management studies he is interested in right now. He said he would be ever willing to help the first yearites who would like to get a branch change. We wish you all the best for your future endeavors Saurabh, best of luck. |
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An article in Economic Times dated July 04, 2005 titled “IITs, IIMs in expansion mode.”
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1160421.cms
The author asserts that Planning Commission has given go ahead for expansion of institutes such as IITs and IIMs. Excerpts from the article:
“NEW DELHI: The wait may finally be over for IIT and IIM aspirants. Setting up new IITs and IIMs is set to become a national priority. This could mean that plans for an IIM in the North-East, and upgrading of seven engineering institutes to IIT status, which have been in the pipeline, will finally see the light of day.”
“These were Institute of Technology, BHU, University College of Engineering combined with University College of Technology, Osmania University, Bengal Engineering College, Jadavpur University’s engineering and technology departments, Zakir Hussain College of Engineering and Technology, AMU, Andhra University College of Engineering and Cochin University of Science and Technology. The UPA government has not been able to decide whether to upgrade or set up new IITs. But the renewed emphasis on this plan to expand numbers by the Planning Commission may bring this plan on track.”
An article in Economic Times dated July 11, 2005 titled “Wanna join IIT? Go to Varanasi first.”
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1166557.cms
The article states that over 400 coaching classes have mushroomed in Varanasi city, to prepare students for IIT, management and medical college entrance exams. It also refers to classes run by IT-BHU alumni such as Amarendra Kumar Jha and Prateek Upadhyaya. Excerpts from the article:
"The city, housing over 400 coaching institutes of different capacities, is today sending 1,000 engineering aspirants (including 200 IITians) and 250 budding medicos to different institutions for admission.”
"Making a similar claim, Prateek Upadhyaya, who also runs one of the leading coaching centres of Mahmoorganj area, said that about six students left a famous institution in Kota to join his centre. Both Jha and Upadhyaya, alumni of Benaras Hindu University, are the products of the Institute of Technology.”
http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20050725/technologylife01.shtml
The author discusses the recent trend of circuit (CSE, ECE, EEE) engineers for IT, ITes and other services for employment. Excerpts from the article:
IT services vs. IT product firms Even if a few leading IT services companies are paying close attention to the IT product company salary structure, they [the former] have to still manage the attrition rate. Since services companies are considered a launching pad, attrition has become inevitable. In order to overcome such challenges, IT services companies are churning out different strategies to recruit freshers. They have started eyeing beyond the top 50 colleges to recruit people in large numbers while they look at the top 20 colleges only for candidates with specialized skills. A few placement heads from the top colleges observe that there has been a decline in the number of applicants joining IT services firms.
On the other hand, it may not be true that IT product companies are on the gaining side alone. They too have tremendous challenges at the campus recruitment level. The latest MNC entries in India and a few start-ups here also reach out to top colleges. “The bigger IT product companies poach people who have exceptional coding ability. Small players have challenges in terms of the brand, work, job security and access to the talent as it is a huge cost,” says Piyush Dixit, Director, Engineering, Net-Devices India. It is becoming increasingly tough for these small firms to explain their operations and the technologies they are working on.
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Institutte of Technology,BHU |
Delhi College of Engineering |
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In
2004 |
In
2005 |
In
2004 |
In
2005 |
| Infosys |
1.8 (UG) |
2.2 (UG) | ||
| TCS |
2.09 (UG) | 2.15 (UG) | 2.02 (UG) | 2.24 (UG) |
| Wipro |
1.8 (UG) | 2.4 (UG) | 1.6 (UG) | 2.4 (UG) |
| Hughes |
2.75 (UG) | 3.25 (UG) | 3.0 (UG) | 2.75 (UG) |
| Samsung |
4.4 (PG) |
4.6 (PG) |
||
| S
T Micro |
4.3 (PG) |
5.0 (PG) |
4.65 (PG) |
5.0 (PG) |
| Oracle |
4.5 (UG) | 5.5 (UG) | 4.5 (UG) | 5.5 (UG) |
| Trilogy |
6.5 (UG) | 7.75 (UG) | 6.5 (UG) | 7.75 (UG) |
| Values are in Rs (lakhs) |
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| Source : Campus Connect | ||||
An article in Indo-Asian News Service dated July 24, 2005 titled “BHU to transform itself into centre of excellence.
http://www.eians.com/stories/2005/07/24/24on.shtml
The article describes the vision of Vice-Chancellor to convert entire BHU into an IIT-like institution, where a student can study in subject or faculty under one campus.
BHU to transform itself into centre of excellence
By Lola Nayar, Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, July 24 (IANS) The Benaras Hindu University (BHU), one of India's oldest institutions of learning, is awaiting a large infusion of government funds as it moves to transform itself into a centre of excellence with cutting-edge technological training and career-oriented basic sciences.
Set up in 1916, the BHU is one of the largest residential institutions in Asia with 18,000 students on its rolls spread over a 1,300-acre leafy campus, complete with an airstrip and a large temple, that has 14 faculties and 138 departments, some of them housed in heritage buildings.
Plans are under way to "make it into an equivalent of an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) or more, with more focus on preparing people for a career in basic science, making education system more aligned with occupation and livelihood", university vice-chancellor Punjab Singh told IANS here.
"The government is processing a proposal for providing the BHU funding equivalent to an IIT (which could be anywhere between Rs.150 million and Rs.2 billion)," Singh said.
"The project for funding has been prepared and is being considered by the ministry of human resource development. We are now planning to make a presentation of our vision for the BHU," said Singh, a former director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) who took charge in May.
Singh is keen to build on the multi-faculty strength of the BHU in areas like agriculture, medical, social, environmental and physical sciences - some areas not focused in IITs - and give a boost to human resource development alongside academic and research pursuits.
Networking with several universities, the BHU is pursuing studies in areas like nano-technology, human genetic engineering, pre-natal care and stem cell research, besides being one of the pioneers in India in hydrogen fuel cell research.
Singh said the BHU had also plans for developing its 2,700-acre Barkaccha farm in Mirzapur district, 60 km from the BHU, into an agriculture training and entrepreneurship centre to serve Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttranchal as well as Chhattishgarh.
he project, estimated to cost about Rs.1.25 billion, is being proposed to attract more people to seek careers in science.
"The fact that very few people are seeking careers in science, leading to a decline in the number of students opting for basic science, is a dangerous development. Even those coming into basic science stream are not the top layer," he said.
The agriculture scientist, who is an advisor to the government, is of the view that select universities should be given a helping hand like the Rs.1 billion provided this year to the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore to build the infrastructure and to attract young talent.
Singh is a member of the expert committee headed by noted scientist K. Kasturirangan to review funding criteria for select universities through a block grant.
The BHU has also submitted a proposal of Rs.6 billion to the human resource development ministry and the health ministry to upgrade its medical institute and hospital.
Its 1,000-bed hospital and medical institute is greatly in need of more facilities to cater to the patients who come not just from nearby areas but even from Nepal.
- Indo-Asian News Service
For clarifications/queries, please contact IANS NEWS DESK at 2616-5778/8546, 2617-3369
On July 27, 2005 Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) invited the heads of seven colleges selected for potential IIT status, to New Delhi for discussion. Our Director, Dr. S. N. Upadhyay, attended the meeting. Our Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Punjab Singh also attended. Arvind Gupta (ECE1992) joined the meeting as an observer.
At the meeting, all colleges, including IT-BHU, submitted and discussed 10-year Vision Document. The document outlines where an institute want to see itself by the year 2015. The colleges also made request for additional funding for infrastructure improvement.
1) Mukul Agrawal (ECE2000) wrote on June 30, 2005:
Hi:
Great beginning. Congrats! I must say that it was really disappointing, though. One needs to cover each event "at least" 10 times the details given right now. Few pictures from the events would be appreciated as well. Another suggestion, Anshuman’s usual updates on alumni of BHU being on news can also be included along with BHU being in news. And a question, isn't it kind off competes with Reverberation, at least in parts?
All said, I must add; efforts involved in getting this started are deeply appreciated. I earnestly hope to see the next edition on 10th of July.
Thanks,
Mukul
Reply from Chronicle
Hi Mukul:
It's nice to see your email. In fact, yours is the first one.
- The Chronicle is a condensed news magazine, where all the news and events related to IT are recorded. We keep it short, as a very long one people may not like to read every month. We appreciate your suggestion and will expand press and other items by couple of lines, so that one need not open the link to get the idea.
- We want to include photos, but could not get this time. In future, such as sports events, convocation, etc we will add photos. We want to write important news only and do not want to report routine affairs such as alumni meetings, which take place every month. We also try to include any alumni in news, alumni project, etc.
- The Chronicle does not compete with Reverberations. The Chronicle is a sacred newsletter, which will faithfully record (rain or shine) any events or news happens related to IT, so that future generations can can have a look at it. On the other hand, Rev. is an artistic expression of feeling of IT community, and will include games, story, puzzles, etc. Chronicle is strictly news, although Rev. may contain any event in great description.
2) Shubham Basu (Cera2002) wrote on 14 July, 2005:
Great work guys to give the Chronicle online. Would it be possible to add pictures, of events at ITBHU to the magazine? It’s a great joy to see those pictures
Regards
Shubham Basu
ITBHU '02
Reply from Chronicle Team:
Hi Shubham:
The second issue of Chronicle-the monthly newsletter- has just come out. The July edition contains photos of inauguration of Library Automation Project by our Director. We will place photographs in Chronicle as well as Reverberations magazine, as needed.
Chronicle team
About ITBHU Chronicle
The ITBHU Chronicle is a monthly publication of Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, UP.
Director of the Institute - Dr. S. N. Upadhyay.
The Chronicle is published by The Chronicle Team:
Editorial Team-Gopal Avasthi (Mech2008); Kapil Srivastav (Mech2008); Varun Murali (Mech2008)
Website: www.itbhu.org/chronicle; For contact: chronicle@itbhu.org